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Kingston,Mi | Glad I did not post earlier, I just read an article in the newest Michigan Farmer about Syngenta's new hybrid wheat breeding program. Since all of the current wheats are not hybrid lines and were produced in the time honored fashion of pairing 2 lines, increasing the offspring and evaluating the resulting grain against industry needs and desires, the question becomes " is it bad, suspect, completely reckless to continue on this path since the only change to wheat (barley, oats and other grains other than corn)breeding is the wheat breeder comes to work in a car rather than a horse drawn buggy, their lab./office is illuminated by flouresent lamps rather than kerosene, a computer is used to tally the results rather than a ledger and pencil".
The contention that humans are not supposed to eat wheat should have been explained to the people of Mesopatamian river valley 15,000 years ago. They find wheat in their granaries, but apparently haven't yet found a prehistoric Frigidare with Romaine lettuce and low cal. Italian dressing. If brewing beer accelerated civilization (and is brewed from fermented grains) what would civilization look like had they tried to ferment lettuce?
One further question, where are the professional crop breeders when these self serving charlatans are on the speaking tour? Why don't they demand equal time to explain what is being done and why.
Several months ago a Smithsonian Magazine came in the mail, I was reading the letters to the editor when a short letter berating hybred wheat, all modern agriculture and the solution to eat "organic" came from that historic center of nutrition and wheat breeding, Miami Beach, Florida. I searched around and found the original article in an earlier copy. It was a fairly benign piece on wheat and several growers who were growing "heritage" lines of wheat because if it is "heritage it must be better". It also had a brief history of how wheat came to be, it used the dreaded word "hybred" in this case they explained that it was a naturally occouring hybred amoung the 3 ancesteral pre-wheats (eincorn and 2 others) and that some resident of the Mesopotamian area recognized the improved grain, grain yeild and planted next year. Bread, croisannts and beer soon followed and we have been headed towards Hades ever since. | |
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Dr. William Davis interview on CBS .... wheat
